And when it came to selecting a taxidermist to do the job, they didn't look much further than Woodbury Taxidermy.

"(Owner) Jimmy Dieringer is the best there is when it comes to taxidermy," curator Bruce Shackelford says. "I don't know of anyone else who is better or even as good. They're always our first choice."

The center opens Saturday.

With a staff of 30 and annual revenues of $4.5 million, Woodbury Taxidermy is in what passes for the heart of downtown Ingram. Surprisingly large, the operation consists of several warehouselike buildings where the multistep process of preparing the animal - from hide to finished trophy - is completed.

These steps include positioning the high-density polyurethane foam mannequin that serves as the mount's foundation to give the trophy a feeling of movement, stretching and positioning the hide over the mannequin, positioning the mount on a naturalistic display and, finally, airbrushing the natural colors back into the skin that were lost through the tanning process.

The final products are so extraordinarily lifelike that walking through the facility is like visiting a wildlife museum or theme-park attraction. In addition to dozens of individual mounts being assembled or already completed, there are several large-scale displays under construction that look like Hollywood movie sets.

In one room, for example, a visitor comes upon the front half of a life-size African bull elephant, which appears to be emerging from the wall behind it.

"This will be placed in a client's trophy room," says Dieringer who, at 54, has been a taxidermist for 35 years. "My muralist will paint the rest of the elephant's body, as well as a river, the sky, trees and other animals in the background. When it's done it'll feel like you're on the African savannah and the elephant is walking out of the water toward you. It's going to be an unbelievable piece."

In the corner of another building, workers are putting the finishing touches on a 30-foot-high rocky outcropping. When finished, it will be populated by a dozen different sheep - snow sheep, stone sheep, desert sheep, dall sheep and more - clambering up and down the snow-swept rock face. The gray rock, made from painted and hand-rubbed, high-density foam, looks as realistic as anything Disney's "Imagineers" could create.

"The client hunts sheep from around the world and has been collecting them for years," says Dieringer's son and partner, Derek, 30. "We designed the display around the animals he had and the positions they were in. It'll take us about a month to complete it."

It took two weeks to complete the longhorn that will greet visitors to the second floor of the 20,000-square-foot South Texas Heritage Center. The animal was raised on the Peeler Ranch in Atascosa County. It likely weighed between 2,000 and 2,200 pounds and measured 5 feet from hoof to top of the hip and 8 feet from nose to rump. The horns, Shackelford estimates, span 8 feet, which he says are "longer than most."

Museum spokeswoman Shannon Standley said a donor contributed to the cost of acquiring the steer and having it mounted, and would not provide the total cost of the display. A price list from Woodbury Taxidermy pegs the cost of mounting a life-size longhorn at $12,900.

Indeed, the Dieringers have mounted many longhorns, particularly for the nearby Y.O. Ranch, where, in the 1950s, the longhorn was saved from imminent extinction. And they recently finished another specimen, a full-body, jet-black steer that was scheduled to be placed in the Lone Star Cafe on the River Walk this month.